Read Online A French Wedding by Hannah Tunnicliffe - Free Book Online

presume. Then one for Eddie and what’s-her-name … the boobs …’
    â€˜Beth,’ Juliette supplies again.
    â€˜Beth. You and Hugo. Lars and me. That’s four. Where is Helen sleeping?’
    Hugo snorts. ‘Are you kidding? In with Max, if he gets his way.’
    â€˜It hasn’t worked for him so far,’ Nina says. ‘Juliette, is it okay if Sophie sleeps on a couch?’
    â€˜Yes, sorry,’ Juliette replies. ‘I put spare linen at the top of the stairs. There is a day bed in the music studio or she can sleep in the lounge, whichever you think is best. The studio is further from the rooms, so you might not be very close to each other.’
    â€˜Oh, she’ll be happy with that,’ says Nina.
    Hugo adds, acerbically, ‘Max will be thrilled too. Thought we weren’t bringing kids.’
    â€˜Jesus, Hugo,’ Rosie cries out.
    â€˜You get out of the wrong side of bed, Hugo?’ Nina asks.
    Juliette remembers what Max had said next. Hugo … he’s a fucking twat.
    â€˜It’s been a long drive. My wife has been battering me with instructions on social graces.’
    Nina smiles sweetly. ‘Maybe you need them.’
    *
    Despite missing guests – Max and Helen – Juliette prepares dinner. Tonight’s menu is fish – sole and silver-bellied sardines, a salad of beetroot, pink grapefruit, goat’s cheese and mint, spring asparagus with almonds and a lemon dressing. Max told her to keep the meals very casual, so she set a table outside with simple silver cutlery, tea lights in glass jars, a pile of paper napkins, and two little wooden bowls with flakes of fleur de sel and black pepper. Already there is a craggy pile of shells in the bin, the group having tasted their first Breton oysters, which Juliette served with lemon cheeks as a starter. In the kitchen, Juliette pan-fries sole fillets in a little butter, making mental notes about her guests and their eating habits. Eddie and Nina are enthusiastic about food; Hugo is more of an academic. He informs everyone that you shouldn’t eat oysters in a month without an ‘r’ in it and explains that Cancale is the most famous village in Brittany for them. Rosie eats only a little and then becomes distracted in conversation. Beth, now wearing a short, swingy summer dress with grey and white stripes, is curious but tentative. All of the group, barring Beth, drink a lot of Muscadet wine, direct from a wine supplier from Quimper who enjoys the opportunity to flirt when Juliette places her orders.
    Max’s friends, gathered around the candlelit table, are polite but informal, much like a family. Eddie and Lars laugh and chat while Nina and Rosie have their heads close together, talking in cosy whispers. Beth and Hugo hang off to the sides, looking a little uncomfortable. That is the hazard of old friendships; other people, extras and in-laws, get left out. Lars is clearly in charge of the music, much to the chagrin of Hugo, who doesn’t seem to have the same taste as the others. Juliette is pleased she spent that year in an English boarding school because she recognises the tunes Lars chooses; old stuff – The Smiths, New Order, Stone Roses, R.E.M. Beth is quiet, somewhat baffled perhaps, but Juliette can’t be sure if that is because the music is unfamiliar, the food foreign, or the company overwhelming. She overhears her ask Eddie, in a whisper, why Max is not with them and looks away as he guffaws, murmuring something about girls or drugs. Hugo is visibly put out. He rests his hand on Rosie’s knee but it falls off when she twists her chair to face Nina.
    Juliette turns the fish fillets over, one by one. She wonders if the group will find the food too plain. She has become a traditional cook over the past year. She uses ingredients directly from Douarnenez whenever she can – sardines and other seafood, spring vegetables, local yoghurts and cheese. She has